I was excited for this--Novak has written some really interesting articles on Defoe. Interesting, well-written, well-argued and so on.

This book... not so much. This is *strictly* an academic research tool. Novak is not, I suspect, much of a biographer at heart. He is, however, an excellent scholar of Defoe. So the structure of this book is, straightforwardly, a summary of Defoe's writings. All of them, from the most insignificant squib in defense of Whig principles, through to the late novels that give us a reason to care about Defoe any more than any of the other fairly generic Dissenting Whigs. And they all get more or less the same amount of attention. This is great if you're writing a dissertation on Defoe and don't want to read his collected works. This is not great if you want to learn about Defoe or his novels.

I wouldn't choose to write a biography this way, but I can see the value in it. But even that value is decreased somewhat by the impenetrable style of the book. Novak routinely names obscure eighteenth century men and events without introducing them or saying who/what they are. Since so much of Defoe's writing was occasional journalism, much of the book is a not very well organized look at minor, unimportant political/theological/economic scuffles. And I say this as a reader who's fascinated by 18th century English politics.

My reading of the book wasn't helped by the fact that Novak defends more or less everything Defoe said (when he does something truly and obviously objectionable, Novak will introduce the paragraph with 'It must be admitted that...'). I think Defoe was wrong in most of the debates he was a part of, and that his ideas, personality and actions were borderline repugnant.

So it's possible that someone who, like Novak, is more or less an 18th century Whig with low church sympathies and a love for trade and commerce would find more to like about this book than I did. And if you're a literature graduate student, even a non-Whiggish one, this is obviously a gold-mine that you should buy immediately. You just don't want to read it right through, trust me. ( )

This is a solid, well-written biography of Daniel Defoe, who proves to have been quite an interesting fellow. I would recommend having a reasonably serious Defoe-interest before tackling this book, however, because it is long and quite detailed.

That ever-so-slight caveat aside, I have no difficulty recommending this. I became very interested in Defoe this year after reading his amazing _Journal of the Plague Year_, which is surely one of my top reads for 2012.

Defoe was a man of many masks in an incredibly wide range of works. I believe all the masks and all the works are explicated here. Not a light read, but well worth the effort if you have the motivation.

(Caveat: I am only half way through the book) ( )